VP Debate Preview: Spirit of ’76

Oct 2, 2008

RUSH: Interesting little test I’m going to give you. Do you know who the vice presidential candidates were in 1976? I’ll give you a hint. The presidential candidates were Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Who were the vice presidential candidates in 1976? If you don’t know, this is a great illustration of how irrelevant in most cases the vice president is during the campaign. Snerdley, you think you know? Okay. All right, he says Walter Mondale was Jimmy Carter’s vice presidential nomination. I’ll give you that one, Mondale is right.

Who was Gerald Ford’s vice presidential nominee? See. I’m sure some of you in the audience are out there shouting at your radios. It was Bob Dole. And Bob Dole and Walter F. Mondull had a debate. There was a vice presidential debate in 1976, and I have Senator Mondull’s opening statement. I want to read this to you. We don’t have it on audio, but I have it here, I’m going to read it to you, and I want you to listen and recall now that this was 32 years ago, 1976. I want you to realize how identical it is to what Democrats today, this very day, are saying. I also want to make a prediction, that Joe Biden’s opening statement will contain much of the same thing here that you will hear me read from Walter Mondull in 1976. Are you ready? Here we go.

Walter Mondull: ‘I believe that most Americans would agree on the problems this country faces and which the next administration must solve. They include the need, once again, for an economy that works. The economy today is in very, very bad shape, the highest unemployment since the Great Depression, 50% higher than when Mr. Ford took office, raging inflation. The latest wholesale price index is once again raising the specter of double-digit inflation. The purchasing power of the average American has slipped so much that it’s now the equivalent of the purchasing power in 1965. It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse. All the leading indicators now point downward. Stock investors are losing confidence. Over $50 billion of value has disappeared from the stock market in less than a month. We need a government that works, we need a government that cares, and once again, we have to get back at work on education, on health, on housing, on the environment, on energy. And we need a foreign policy that once again reflects the values and the beliefs of the American people. This will take leadership, and we need leadership, too. The Republican administration, the Republican Party has had eight years to solve these problems. All of them have gotten worse. The Republican ticket does not offer new plans for their solution but is engaged in a frantic effort to defend the past. This nation desperately needs new leadership. The Carter-Mondull ticket would offer a new generation of leadership dedicated to solving the problems I have listed, and that is the basis of our appeal.’

That’s Walter Mondull in his opening statement in a debate against Bob Dole, vice presidential debate 1976, 32 years ago. How much you want to bet it’s almost identical to what Biden says tonight? Not just because Biden might plagiarize it. I mean, you hold out the likelihood that he’ll plagiarize it, but how can it even be called plagiarizing when the same playbook is used for the last 60 years? It doesn’t matter what the reality on the ground is, they lie, they try to panic and frighten everybody. Their playbook has not changed: doom, gloom, Great Depression, they offer change, and then what did we get? Jimmy Carter. And you want to talk about making it worse, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter. We’ll come back, ladies and gentlemen. I will explain to you why the Drive-Bys today are unified in suggesting to you that you don’t need to vote. It will be pointless for you to vote because the tide has turned. Obama’s pulled way ahead. It’s pointless to go out there and vote. The election is essentially over.